Lakshya Sen enters Dutch Open final

Lakshya Sen beat Swede Felix Burestedt in straight games and will now take on Yusuke Onodera of Japan in the summit clash on Sunday.

Lakshya Sen beat his Swedish opponent in straight games.

Rising Indian shuttler Lakshya Sen stormed into the men’s singles final with a straight-game win over Felix Burestedt of Sweden at the Dutch Open Super 100 tournament here on Saturday.

The 18-year-old Indian, who had clinched the Belgian Open last month, beat Felix 21-12 21-9 in a lop-sided semifinal contest that lasted 33 minutes.

Lakshya had earlier sailed into the men’s singles semifinals with a 21-9 21-16 win over compatriot B. M. Rahul Bharadwaj on Friday night.

Lakshya, who had won the Asian Junior champion, a silver at Youth Olympic Games and a bronze medal at World Junior Championships last year, will now take on Yusuke Onodera of Japan in the summit clash on Sunday.

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In the semifinal, it was neck-and-neck between Lakshya and Felix till the first six points before the Indian pocketed five straight points to surge ahead 11-6.

Felix clawed his way back to reduce the margin to 10-12 before Lakshya upped his game to pocket the first game.

The second game was a one-sided contest as Lakshya raced to an 8-0 lead. Felix managed to secure nine points but Lakshya kept his nose ahead to seal the contest.

Ealier in the quarterfinals against Bharadwaj, Lakshya dished out a dominating game, moving to a 6-0 lead early on and then jumped to 11-3 at the interval.

He continued his march ahead, reeling off six straight points at 13-8 to move to 18-8 and soon pocketed the game comfortably.

In the second game, Bharadwaj opened up a 4-2 lead for a brief period but Lakshya came back to turn the tables and surged to 11-6 at the break.

Bharadwaj tried to make a comeback but Lakshya kept his nose ahead to eventually shut the door on his opponent.